Date:02/12/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/12/02/stories/2007120250630100.htm

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After the storm, AIIMS returns to uneasy calm

Staff Reporter

– PHOTO: SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA

AFTER THE STORM: A quiet candlelight vigil by protesting doctors at AIIMS in New Delhi on Saturday evening.

NEW DELHI: A day after the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry appointed Dr. T. D. Dogra as acting Director of the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences here for a month, supporters of the Institute’s ousted Director, Dr. P. Venugopal, opted to adopt a wait-and-watch policy for now.

Protest

Asserting that they had full faith in the Supreme Court where a petition challenging the removal of Dr. Venugopal is to be heard on Monday, a group of resident doctors and senior faculty protesting against the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences and Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (Amendment) Act, 2007, and the manner in which Dr. Venugopal was removed from his office held a candlelight vigil at the Institute on Saturday evening.

Appealing to the powers that be to “allow the Institute to maintain its sanctity”, they also registered their protest by working extra time at the Institute’s Out-Patient Department (OPD) over the weekend.

AIIMS Faculty Association president B. K. Khaitan said: ``This is an institution conceived and built in independent India. It has in the past more than 50 years served this nation’s health with commitment. This institution has been acknowledged by the public, successive governments and the international community for its valuable contributions in the fields of health care, development of biomedical education and research. We are deeply anguished and disheartened.”

“Though it appears innocuous, the order [removing the AIIMS Director] has its genesis in the antipathy of one Minister against an autonomous institution’s duly selected head,” added Dr. Khaitan.

According to sources at AIIMS, among the frontrunners for the post of AIIMS Director now are Dr. T. D. Dogra, Dr. A. Sampath Kumar, Dr. G. K. Rath and Dr. Rani Kumar, all from AIIMS; and Dr. K. K. Talwar, Director of the Post Graduate Institute (PGI) of Medical Education and Research in Chandigarh.

Meanwhile, the next extraordinary meeting of the AIIMS Governing Body is scheduled for this coming Friday.